


Maybe You're Gonna Be the One That Saves Me

by DrWhoFan71



Series: Everything Sucks! An Unoriginally-Titled Collection of As-Yet-Unwritten One-Shots [1]
Category: Everything Sucks (TV)
Genre: 1x02, AV Club, Cameos from Leslie & Stargrove & Scott Pocket, Canon Compliant, Canon LGBTQ Female Character, Deer in headlights, Don't worry - I don't ship Kate and Luke, Emaline is on Kate's mind but doesn't appear in person, F/F, F/M, Morning Announcements, One Shot, Pressed Lemon, Unrequited Crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-23
Updated: 2018-02-23
Packaged: 2019-03-23 03:13:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13778466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DrWhoFan71/pseuds/DrWhoFan71
Summary: Kate Messner is *not* having a good week... but surely recording morning announcements will at least give her a moment's respite from the unexpected high school drama that she's always strived to avoid?Lol... yeah, right. [Contains some brief bad language; one-shot covering the last scene of 1x02]





	Maybe You're Gonna Be the One That Saves Me

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Everything Sucks! and its characters are the intellectual property of Netflix, yada yada, I do not own them, yada yada, the song Wonderwall is performed by Oasis and was released by Creation Records, etc.
> 
> Author’s notes can be found at the end of the piece. I hope that you enjoy!

Kate didn’t quite know what she had expected when Scott had yelled “Rrrrrroooooollllll tape!” with spontaneous aplomb into her camera. Turning away to watch the nearby studio monitor with light, disguised curiosity, she had briefly registered Luke giving her a strange look from over on Camera 2.  

(Such moments already seemed to be a pretty standard occurrence in their... friendship? Could she call it that? She barely knew the boy, and no wonder, since they’d first met just last Friday).

When _Wonderwall_ started playing, she'd brushed it off, still curious about where this whole thing was going. It may have been the song which had kept her sane for the past couple of days, but this was Boring High School, so it was hardly likely that she was the only one who knew the song well; it had been out for almost a year, after all.

Heck, it was Luke who’d given her a copy of the album, although from an earlier conversation, she got the impression that he wasn’t all that familiar with it yet. Which was a weird coincidence, at least in terms of her thought patterns, because the kid sat with his back to the camera and strumming at a guitar looked rather like Luke...

The sudden appearance of a clown made her smile; lots of people found them scary, but she’d always held clowns in a bittersweet fondness for the memories that she couldn’t bring herself to detach from them. This one wasn’t carrying a balloon (which made her feel unreasonably thankful) but he did have a comically large bow-tie, which he made a vain, goofy attempt to straighten.

 

Whatever vague ideas might have been lurking in the back of her consciousness, one thing which she sure-as-hell had certifiably _not_ expected to see what was _Luke_ 's face singing out at her from a handheld mirror! The AV geek in her took a second to admire the shot – because there was _no_ sign of the camera in that mirror, dayum – before she shot Luke an astounded look. 

“You..!?” she mouthed at him, incredulous but impressed; he gave her a shy smile in response. 

As the song got into its groove, what she could only assume was a recreation of Oasis’ music video (she hadn’t seen it yet herself) kept unfolding, peppered with the humour of Luke's friends catching themselves and the camera in-shot at times, or Luke playing multiple characters in one car, or the trio just generally goofing around.

Kate couldn’t help but smile; it was all so wonderfully silly, yet felt like it carried a deeper meaning of some kind – like it was meant for her. That would sound vain if spoken aloud, she knew, but she didn’t consider herself to be a particularly egotistical person, and the fact that she could feel Luke’s hopeful eyes on her throughout the tape further justified her theory. 

It had been a shitty couple of days for her, and oddly enough, this was making her feel _so_ much better.

Maybe they were already friends, after all...

...but for some reason, when the song hit its chorus, she found herself growing more thoughtful. Unable to help herself, she began to question, “where exactly is this going?”

Because Luke was giving it his all right into the camera, and at times, his intensity was catching her off guard.

 

_But maybe…_

_you’re gonna be the one that saves me _…__

_and after all…_

_you’re my wonderwall…_

 

It was odd; the video was only getting more hilarious, in usual circumstances, and Luke’s glances towards her were less tentative now and more like grins. Part of her wanted to keep laughing and nodding along to the music, but the rational part of her brain started pointing out that most ‘friends' don’t stage a whole music video to cheer up someone they had known for less than a week (at least, not in the limited experience she had with high-school friendships)...

...or, at least, not without wanting to get something out of it.

There was a slight unnerving feeling building in her chest, which she tried to tell herself was just the rubbish week she’d had, trying to deny her this small release.

She glanced at Leslie, who looked positively charmed, her mouth slightly open and her neck craning from her position at the sound desk to get a glance at Luke in-the-flesh.

 

Her jitters, however, appeared to be justified when Luke returned to the screen after the music had died away, wearing a ridiculous pair of double-lensed shades which might, in other circumstances, have brightened the hush which seemed to have settled on the studio. It was like he was staring right at her, twice, since she was ever-more conscious of the real Luke’s eyes on her from across the room as the seconds ticked by.

“Kate Messner…”

Kate found she didn’t even have to try avoiding a sharp intake breath, because of course – this had always been about her. Part of her had known as soon as the first few notes of the familiar melody had begun to play.

“…will you go out with me?”

She may have sensed the words coming, in a way, but that didn’t stop her from feeling like a rabbit stuck in headlights. Her eyes might have grown to be as wide as saucers, for all she could tell, but her brain appeared to have been doused in a very thick, dense treacle.

The whole room was completely silent, save for the underlying buzz of cables and the almost-inaudible breaths of her AV colleagues.  _So this is what they mean when they say “you could cut the tension with a knife”_ , some part of her brain rambled distantly, swatting in futility at the clouds which had descended upon it.

She was stunned.

 

It took a few seconds, but the reality of the situation seeped its way past the shock-block and began to set in:

Her new ‘friend’ Luke had asked her out.

Her – Kate Messner.

The principal’s daughter, who would rather stay mostly in the background, content to fly under the radar and avoid the drama of high school life.

A girl who had never been asked out in her life (unless you counted that one time in second grade – and, like, that never counts; plus, Ethan Ross had ended up stealing her juicebox anyway).

A girl who had further confirmed to herself this weekend something which she had spent many other nights alone in her room coming to terms with – the fact that she was not attracted to boys, and was _very much_ attracted to girls.

And he had done so via a publicly-broadcast music video made especially for her, no less.

 

It was only then that it occurred to Kate that it wasn’t just the handful of them in the AV room who had seen and heard the _Wonderwall_ video and the loaded question which followed it; it was literally everyone in the whole school. It was all of the kids who had made her feel so terrible about herself in the past couple of days by grafitiing her locker, gossiping about her behind their hands and giving her dirty, taunting and disgusted looks. It was her classmates, her teachers, and Emaline….

And now, shaken from her reverie by a combination of Luke’s form approaching and Mr Stargrove’s muttered camera instruction, she became aware of one being pointed straight at her, its lens glinting expectantly as Luke came to hover in her peripheral vision with an excited grin on his face.

Oh dear. She had never liked being in the spotlight… and now it had happened twice in one week.

The silence was dragging on and she knew that she ought to be honest with Luke and say no – she wasn’t attracted to him. He was kind and sweet and kinda dorky in a way which made her laugh at some antics and roll her eyes at others, but he didn’t make her feel how the women in the magazines had made her feel, or how she'd felt in the locker room on Monday morning, before everything went wrong – not even slightly. She couldn’t lead him on.

But then – she’d be dashing his hopes in front of the entire school. Surely that would be crueller than just… giving this a try? It wasn’t like she had anything left to lose.

And that’s when it struck her.

Whether he had meant to do it or not, Luke had provided her with a very public way to quash the rumours which had been tormenting her for the last few days. She had her doubts that he’d even heard them, or else surely he wouldn’t be asking her this? But it was a chance she would be foolish not to take. One small, harmless lie to hide a very uncomfortable, terrifying truth.

“Kate..?”

Luke’s voice sounded downbeat and unsure. The silence kept stretching on, surely almost at breaking point now.

Steeling herself, Kate made her decision. 

“Yes.”

 

Elated relief flooded Luke’s face, and she tried to match his broad, beaming smile with an expression which didn’t resemble a terrified animal as her new ‘boyfriend' turned his delight on the camera. The word simply didn’t sit right in her head, and she immediately felt an uncomfortable stab of guilt when Emaline’s face popped into her head unbidden; the older girl's visage was sneering, but still somehow sexy.

She had to admit, however; that feeling was outweighed somewhat by a wave of relief that the moment was over, and that (with any luck) the rumours about her would be too.

Well. This was going to be an interesting year, if nothing else...

**Author's Note:**

> Soooooo guys I hope that you liked it! I watched through all of Everything Sucks! in the last few days and, since the fandom’s so new, thought that maybe I should have a go at writing the fanfiction I’d like to read for a change. This was my take on the scene exactly how it was played in the episode 1x02 "Maybe You’re Gonna Be the One That Saves Me", which I’ve oh-so-originally also named this fic.
> 
> I’ve written a few bits & bobs before on FFN but never got very far with chapter-based fics, so I’m thinking of doing a series of one-shots from the perspective of different characters in this world, since I love them all so much and feel like there’s so much that they *don’t* say (no-one likes talking about their feelings unless they’re pushed on this show lol – surprisingly, except Emaline) which makes for fun fic-writing material.
> 
> I’m open to suggestions, but I reckon plots are likely to remain within canon for now (not necessarily all scenes we’ve already seen in the show, though). I might focus on a few supporting characters as well as the main cast. If you enjoyed the fic then a review really would mean the world (yada yada, but it’s true) :P and thank you so much for reading.
> 
> I hope that I managed to do our beloved Kate justice! I get the strong feeling that she’s a character who will literally change – and save – lives and, as Peyton Kennedy has said, that’s a wonderful thing.


End file.
